1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to label removing and label stripping machines of the type adapted to remove printed matter from labels that have been placed on semi-rigid and/or flexible containers.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel semi-automatic label removing machine which will remove printed matter from labels on soft containers without damaging the container material.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, it was known that printed paper, foil or plastic labels could be removed from cylindrical glass containers. My U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,734 shows and describes a label stripping machine for spirally cutting and removing an adhesive label from a glass container which created label trash when removing the labels.
My U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,865 shows and describes a label peeling machine for removing both a label and its adhesive layer as an integral unit from glass containers.
The above mentioned label stripping and peeling machines cannot be used to remove labels from semi-rigid or soft containers including plastic bottles and aluminum containers as the blades used in both of the above mentioned machines are hard and would damage the container material.
It has been suggested that labels could be soaked and then scrapped from plastic or aluminum containers, however, problems associated with leaching of plastic containers, oxidizing of metal containers and scratching these containers have rendered these suggested practices unusable, inoperable or not feasible when permanent pressure sensitive adhesives have been employed to affix the labels on the containers.
It would be extremely desirable to provide a method and an apparatus that would remove all traces of printed matter from labels to provide a print free surface for relabelling when the above mentioned permanent pressure sensitive adhesives have been employed with labels placed on semi-rigid containers as well as rigid glass containers.